As socialists look out at the horizon of the struggle for a radically reformed society, we should try, like good Marxists, to anticipate where and with whom conflicts are likely to arise and how we are going to deal with those challenges.

A year and a half later, sleepless but amped up on coffee and solidarity from a 29-hour marathon final bargaining session, I celebrated with the rest of the bargaining committee, made up of select union members who negotiated directly with the company, as the union and Vox Media management reached a contract agreement.

The media commentary that followed the surprising (to me, and to many others) August 7th federal extortion conviction of Kenneth Brissette and Timothy Sullivan, senior aides to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, misses the point as to why this verdict, and the prosecution that culminated in this result, are so dangerous to civil society and, not so incidentally, to all of our civil liberties.

TWU member Paul Wynn’s knee surgery prevented him from getting his regular paycheck at work. Luckily, he discovered he was eligible to apply for a Union Plus Disability Grant since he is a Union Plus Credit Cardholder.

When retired USW member and Army veteran Jim Blank discovered Union Plus recently, he was pleasantly surprised to learn he could still benefit from its programs. He received a $1,000 Veteran’s Grant when he purchased a house for his daughter through the Union Plus Mortgage Program.